Socialist Republic of Romania

Romania, 1947–1989. Draft, not yet reviewed

The Socialist Republic of Romania was a communist state that existed from 1947 to the Romanian revolution in 1989. In December 1947, King Michael I was forced to abdicate and the People's Republic of Romania was declared. It was an Eastern Bloc state and a member of the Warsaw Pact, with a dominant role for the Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its constitutions. Many people were arrested, executed or died in custody under communist Romania, most during the Stalinist era of the 1950s, for political, economical, or other reasons.

Seat of power: Bucharest

Rulers

Nicolae Ceaușescu

president of Romania, 1974–1989

Upon taking power, Ceaușescu eased press censorship and condemned the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in his speech of 21 August 1968, which resulted in a surge in popularity. His secret police, the Securitate, was responsible for mass surveillance as well as severe repression within the country, and controlled the media and press. His efforts to repay the debts through austerity were effective, but extremely unpopular.

Portrait of Nicolae Ceaușescu: Unknown authorUnknown author, Attribution, file

Culture

The Palace of the Parliament is the heaviest building in the world, weighing about 4,098,500 tonnes.
The building was designed and supervised by chief architect Anca Petrescu, with a team of approximately 700 architects, and constructed over 13 years from 1984 to 1997.
The Palace was ordered by Nicolae Ceaușescu, the president of Communist Romania.
About 70% of the building remains empty.

Picture

The Palace of the Parliament is the seat of the Parliament of Romania, located atop Dealul Spirii in Bucharest, the national capital.

Image: Jorge Franganillo, CC-BY-2.0, file

Sources

Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.